AK-47

Do you ever feel pain at the abdomen during jogging or intense exercise?
It may be the side stitches.

What are side stitches?
It is also known as exercise related transient abdominal pain (ETAP), an intense stabbing pain suffered by participants of sport and exercise, under the lower edge of the ribcage due to pulling of internal organs downward from the diaphragm.

Location?
Most of the time, side stitches occur on the right side of the body due to the liver, being on that side.

What causes the pain?
The pain is caused by a spasm of the diaphragm muscle while it moves up and down when you inhale and exhale quickly.


How does it causes the pain?
When you inhale, your lungs fill with air and force your diaphragm downward. Conversely, when you exhale your lungs contract and your diaphragm rises. This pattern of rising and falling occurs quite rapidly when you're running and as most side stitches occur on the right hand side, consider what happens to your diaphragm when your right foot strikes the ground.

As your right foot strikes the ground, gravity forces your internal organs downward. Some of these organs are attached to the diaphragm, which in turn pulls the diaphragm downward. Now if you're also exhaling at the same time as your right foot hits the ground, your diaphragm is being pulled upward as your lungs contract. This creates a stretching of the diaphragm muscle and the ligaments that are attached to your internal organs, which in turn causes the pain.

Treating it?
When a side stitch occurs it is important to stop the activity that brought the stitch on in the first place, and reduce the intensity of the activity.
Alter your breathing pattern can be helpful. Take a full, deep breathes and avoid shallow breathing.

Prevention before exercise.
Improve fitness, warming up, strengthen your core muscles, and avoid eating before exercise.